Meh-ry Christmas

For my internet-savvy generation, ”Meh” has long been the perfect word to express a feeling of complete and utter indifference. It’s the word equivilent of a shoulder shrug, and since such a high proportion of our communication is now by text messages or facebook, it’s no surprise that an entire series of words has resulted from our need to express ourselves textually like never before.

“Meh” may have only just been recognised by Collins as an actual word but it’s been published in the online Urban Dictionary for about the past six years, along with words like “frenemy” (friend you can’t trust) and “huggle” (cross between a hug and a snuggle). What once may have started out as people being too lazy to use real words has turned into a global movement, with the word meh even featuring in an episode of The Simpsons. I wonder if “Doh!” is considered a word yet?